Blackjack Beats by Acuity

Description: Blackjack as a rhythm game! There are still a few issues to iron out - I set the sync to be a specific value that works for me, but I don't know if it will work for everyone. Some cases aren't dealt with yet (dealer blackjack isn't checked until player is done playing).
Controls: Press z and x to the beat to get points, and play blackjack!
Notes: This was originally intended as a compo entry. I couldn't fix a lot of the bugs in time, so I delayed to the Jam deadline. All the art and music was created by me within the 72 hours. I definitely want to keep working on this. There's much more I can add. Song will be uploaded to my Soundcloud soon.
| Flash (web) | https://www.kongregate.com/games/Acuity/blackjack-beats |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/blackjack-beats |
Ratings
| Overall | 1081th | 2.827⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1006th | 2.788⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 789th | 3.115⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 641th | 3.538⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 1023th | 2.5⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 313th | 3.5⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 962th | 2.042⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1081th | 2.432⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 37🗳️ | 28🗨️ |
Bad point: the gameplay combine is a little stiff, beat is not get relation with the Blackjack game results almostly. And the strategy of Backjack is limited by beats. And also, I can't get the obviouse message while I win a Blackjack turn.
We choosed the rhythm + card combine too, although we could not write a music. Welcome to play: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/rhythm-card-hero
Music had a good beat and I was able to find the rhythm easy enough to time the buttons. Glad to see you were able to get it done!
I'd say don't be afraid to change the rules of blackjack a bit to suit the game. Zach Gage has done well for himself on iOS by taking classic card games and giving the rules a good shake-up, I think you could do the same!
This is an interesting idea you've got here - rhythm games and card games certainly don't seem "compatible" at first glance. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how Blackjack even works (despite having played versions of Blackjack in other games), and even more embarrassingly, how your game works. :sweat_smile: Like, I had no idea you could miss some beats, as typical rhythm games will normally "penalize" you for doing so. Once I got it down, it was smooth sailing from here on out. :sunglasses:

(Although, I don't know if this is a good score or not, but it was a significant leap from my other lower scores. :joy: )
One issue I had with the game was the fact that it really just felt like Blackjack and not so much a rhythm game. That reason mostly does point to, as mentioned above, the fact that you don't get penalized for missing beats. It's also a little frustrating when the Z and X keys *sometimes* get mapped to the same function, but *sometimes* they don't. There were times when I wanted to keep playing my hand, but I ended up standing because I was using the X key to deal my cards at first. The rhythm part also didn't really feel all that much "rhythm" like - it was very even beats that I guess landed on the beats of the actual music, but they were so far few in between that it really just felt like I could press the Z and X keys almost whenever I wanted to and focus entirely on the card game without the rhythm game part affecting me at all.
That being said, the Blackjack part of the game was pretty well done. I like the design of the cards, the simplicity and pleasantness of the music. The sound effects (er - one sound effect?) were snappy and satisfying. And once I got into the rhythm of the game, it became fun to start "strategizing" my play. One aspect of the game I do like that does feel very "rhythm game" esque is when the music stops, the game also stops too. Overall, I think it was a great concept to explore, but could use more time for extra polish and figuring out how to "blend" the two genres together better. Well, that's what post-jam versions are for, eh? :wink:
I left my rating of your game and thanks for play our game, Witch's Escape.
I hope you continue with the project.